Draenert Profile

Philosophy

DRAENERT has been producing high-quality designer furniture in its own workshops in southern Germany, in Immenstaad on Lake Constance, for more than thirty-five years. In the tradition of artisanal manufacture DRAENERT runs its master workshops in which differentiated product lines are developed and individually crafted. The collection includes dining tables, coffee tables, chairs as well as individual items of furniture.

As a familiy enterprise, DRAENERT is now operated by the second generation. The founder of the company, Dr. Peter Draenert, has set standards in desing and developed the designs into a collection of extraordinary and many times awarded products.

The primary aesthetic influences of the products are drawn from the international forms of classical modernism. The firm cooperates with renowned architects such as Trix and Robert Haussmann of Zurich, Ron Arad of London and O. M. Ungers of Cologne to develop concepts which are bound by both the laws of functionality and formal strictness. High-class workmanship always takes top priority.

Ideas on transformation, movability and extendibility as a testimony of a fast-moving age and high standards require a flair for innovation and inspired experimentation with new technologies. The proximity to the material used is essential for this.The combining of concept, technique and material is a delicate process which is indispensable if the product is to survive in its time.

For many years DRAENERT has also supplied a range of limited edition museum and collectors` pieces, the originals of which are displayed in many international museums and collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London or the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. With this exclusive edition DRAENERT dares to take both a wide retrospective and visionary view and to put the perpetual question: what was - what is - what will be.

Yet for all the international character of DRAENERT`s ideas and methods, tracing back the distinctiveness of its products to a regional consciousness has also remained of significance. Despite the wide expanse of its landscape, the german (alemannic) area encompassing Lake Constance, Upper Swabia and the border area with Austria and Switzerland, forms a cultural region of high density. Painters and poets have descibed and sung the praises of this country and if one should try to describe the characteristics of the alemannic Swabians, industriousness and care would be the most suitable adjectives: it is not without reason that this area enjoys a world-wide repute for great precision and leading technologies.

For these reasons work on the construction of an exhibition building on the company premises was begun in 1990. The DRAENERT ORANGERIE is an impressive building in the manner of the 18th century orangeries with the facilities of both a country theater and a museum. The DRAENERT ORANGERIE is the display window of our furniture business, a sales store for the Lake Constance region and beyond. Apart from its own collection there are items of furniture from the whole of Europe, accessories, antiques, one-offs and masterpieces of exceptional quality and uniqueness. Moreover, in cooperation with art historians the ORANGERIE organizes exhibitions of sculptures and paintings, holds seminars and tours, meetings and receptions. The immediate proximity to the site of manufacture enables the customer to be given exceptional indepth advice.

In this context the DRAENERT natural stone courtyard is also of immense interest. With over 150 kinds of natural stone spread over seven avenues of colour, this collection which has been brought together and repeatedly extended over the last thirty years offers some of the most unique stones of this planet, rarities from the remotest corners between North Cape and South Africa.

DRAENERT SWISS AG, an exclusive manufacturer of upholstery, was founded last spring in Switzerland due to increased sales in the product line of chairs. DRAENERT managed to employ specialists and master craftsmen of the upholstery business for their production. Its main focus is on the development and production of a comprehensive range of upholstered seating furniture.

Designer und Architekten

Die Kunstedition der Artefakte bildet einen hochanspruchsvollen Rahmen für Architektenentwürfe, da sie über den herkömmlichen Gedanken eines gebrauchsfähigen und verbraucherfreundlichen Gegenstandes weit hinausreicht und Fragen aufwirft, die der Gestalter in seiner umfassenden intellektuellen Weite zu beantworten sucht.

Werner Aisslinger, Berlin

Prof. Norbert Berghof, Frankfurt

Prof. Trix und Prof. Robert Haussmann, Zürich

Michael A. Landes, Frankfurt

Prof. Wolfgang Rang, Frankfurt

Prof. Oswald Mathias Ungers, Köln

Georg Appeltshauser, Stuttgart

Walter Giers, Schwäbisch Gmünd

Dietmar Joester, Trier

David Palterer, Florenz

Danilo Silvestrin, München

Prof. Wulf Schneider, Stuttgart

Draenert in museums

DRAENERT is represented, with their extraordinary furniture, in many well-known museums in the world. The questions of style and function are, so to speak, refined and emphasised by the collection of the artefacts. Objects are created, which are beyond the standards of conventional furniture, overcome these standards and become relevant witnesses in the search for the nature of this age, which exist internationally and across all boundaries.

Frankfurt cabinet F1 from the architects Berghof, Landes, Rang, Frankfurt

Victoria & Albert-Museum, London
Museum für angewandte Kunst, Köln
Landesmuseum, Stuttgart
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kassel
Kestner-Museum, Hannover

Frankfurt cabinet F2 from the architects Berghof, Landes, Rang, Frankfurt

Museum für angewandte Kunst, Köln
Wanderausstellung Nationalmuseum, Tokyo

Frankfurt chair F3 from the architects Berghof, Landes, Rang, Frankfurt

Metroplitan Museum of Art, New York
Wanderausstellung Nationalmuseum, Tokyo
Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt
Museum für angewandte Kunst, Köln
Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn
Landesmuseum, Stuttgart

Chair "Leonardo" from Oswald Mathias Ungers, Köln

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kunstgewerbemuseum

Chair "Vitruv" from Oswald Mathias Ungers, Köln

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kunstgewerbemuseum

Chair X1 from Oswald Mathias Ungers, Köln

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kunstgewerbemuseum

Chair "Paso doble" from Georg Appeltshauser, Stuttgart

Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn
Grassimuseum, Leipzig

Table "Nurglas", Modell 1600 from Peter Draenert

Neue Sammlung, München

Pyramid cabinet from Danilo Silvestrin, München

Stadtmuseum, München

Chaiselongue "Siestina" from Sus and Axel Müller-Schöll, Stuttgart

Landesmuseum, Stuttgart

Table and chair "Tango" from András Dozsa-Farkas, Ungarn

Neue Sammlung, München
Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn

Table "Arcadien" from Trix and Robert Haussmann, Zürich

Horst-Jansen-Museum, Oldenburg

Awards

GOOD DESIGN AWARD 2003

from Chicago Athenaeum for the chair model #2039 "Piccolino" of David Palterer.

REDDOT "best of the best" AWARD 2004

from the Design Centre North Rhine-Westphalia for the model G-14 "Quadra-tisch (square table)" of Walter Giers.

Of the many awards received by DRAENERT every year, because of its exemplary product design, two are especially to be emphasised for the season 2003/2004:
The Athenaeum in Chicago, one of the most important design collections in the New World, has awarded the

GOOD DESIGN AWARD 2003

for the extremely funny chair "Piccolino", model 2039, by David Palterer from Florence. Apart from the acceptance into the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Victoria & Albert-Museum in London, this is the third most important award for DRAENERT.
The "Piccolino", an office chair, by the Jewish architect David Palterer who was born in Krakow, lives in Florence and is reading architecture in Milan, goes back to the medieval "Fauteuil de Bureau". It was revived in the 18th century, especially in France, and was used, already in the Napoleonic Empire period, in the Napoleonic Palaces on Elba as an audience chair.
Palterer brought this extremely rare type of chair into the 21st century. DRAENERT produces it and it is celebrated by the design world.

In second place, the

REDDOT AWARD - "best of the best 2004"

must be mentioned. This is awarded, every year, by the Design Centre North Rhine-Westphalia. Here, the coffee table "Quadra-tisch" from the Electronic Art-Collection of Walter Giers was celebrated. On its glass plate an optical light picture changing continuously with the aid of electronic control and filling the room with psychedelic melodies, also electronically generated and controlled. With this "Quadra-tisch" Draenert has been nominated for the Design Award of Federal Republic of Germany 2006.
According to the Draenert motto "Tables must be more than just a pretty sight", the Walter Giers tables mark a beginning into completely new dimensions within the art furniture range of DRAENERT. In addition, DRAENERT works on the topic "Art as furniture or furniture as art" for already 35 years.